Father jailed for serial child abuse over 'gay cure' attempt involving his son

FATHER JAILED FOR SERIAL CHILD ABUSE OVER 'GAY CURE' ATTEMPT INVOLVING HIS SON

Richard Dowling, now 62, made his son Daniel dowling watch porn and have sex with his stepmother Annette Breakspear in an attempt to 'stop him from being gay.' During his father's trial at Reading Crown Court, Dowling claimed he was trying to 'try and steer him in the right direction and not to go to the way of being gay.' Dowling was jailed for five years and Breakspear for eight.

They both 38 when the sexual abuse began.

The court revealed that Dowling's father made him perform oral sex on his stepmother and punched him when he refused.

The abuse started when he was playing a board game and his stepmother, also 62, who ended up being 'completely naked.' The abuse continued even when his father, a former Ministry of Defence worker, was not at home.

It only stopped after Dowling's relationship with Breakspear broke down in 1996 and they moved to Weymouth, Dorset.

Tragically, Dowling, then 16, was also abused by another paedophile.

Police found naked pictures of him at the paedophile's home, and he revealed his trauma to a psychologist.

No arrests were made afterward, and police reportedly treated him shoddily.

Nearly two decades later, after an attempted suicide, Dowling took action in 2015 to seek justice, secretly recording a phone call with his father where he admitted to the abuse.

In court, his father claimed his actions were influenced by 'undiagnosed depression' and a 'Jekyll and Hyde character' in his partner.

Dowling presented himself to court waiving anonymity and waived his rights for privacy to tell of his ongoing trauma, haunted by the smell of his stepmother's perfume.

The court sentenced his father to five years and his stepmother to eight years.